This article, found in the journal Science Teacher, showes the way to make learning about mitosis and meiosis fun. The authors of this article had noticed that the students seemed disengaged and unresponsive to other methods of learning when about mitosis and meiosis. They thought a hands on activity that involved the entire class would be a great way to help the students visualize these two important biological processes. The reason why it is called chromonoodles is because they use swimming pool noodles to represent chromosomes. This is an interesting way of modeling mitosis and meiosis because it is both a non-linguistic representation and a cooperative learning activity. The, the paper goes on to describe how the noodles are supposed to be set up and different chromosome related activities you can use the noodle for. Also, the article suggests ways that you can assess the students. They found that the students loved the large size of the noodles and actually being involved in the process.
Overall, I thought this was a great article and I hope to use chromonoodles in my high school science class. I like how it can involve the entire class and gets students up and out of their seats. I think that students like to do hands on activities. I would also pair this activity with a writing activity or a drawing activity because I would need to check to see if the students could take what they have learned and show understanding of mitosis and meiosis. Any way that a teacher can make the students learn a difficult topic that is vocabulary heavy, fun and exciting is a winning strategy. I think these authors have figured out one way to do it.
Reference
Farrar, J., et. al., (2011). [Part of a special issue: Science on a Shoestring: Great Ideas for any Budget]. The Science Teacher, 78,
no. 5, 34-39
This article, found in the journal Science Teacher, showes the way to make learning about mitosis and meiosis fun. The authors of this article had noticed that the students seemed disengaged and unresponsive to other methods of learning when about mitosis and meiosis. They thought a hands on activity that involved the entire class would be a great way to help the students visualize these two important biological processes. The reason why it is called chromonoodles is because they use swimming pool noodles to represent chromosomes. This is an interesting way of modeling mitosis and meiosis because it is both a non-linguistic representation and a cooperative learning activity. The, the paper goes on to describe how the noodles are supposed to be set up and different chromosome related activities you can use the noodle for. Also, the article suggests ways that you can assess the students. They found that the students loved the large size of the noodles and actually being involved in the process.
Overall, I thought this was a great article and I hope to use chromonoodles in my high school science class. I like how it can involve the entire class and gets students up and out of their seats. I think that students like to do hands on activities. I would also pair this activity with a writing activity or a drawing activity because I would need to check to see if the students could take what they have learned and show understanding of mitosis and meiosis. Any way that a teacher can make the students learn a difficult topic that is vocabulary heavy, fun and exciting is a winning strategy. I think these authors have figured out one way to do it.
Reference
Farrar, J., et. al., (2011). [Part of a special issue: Science on a Shoestring: Great Ideas for any Budget]. The Science Teacher, 78,
no. 5, 34-39
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